Record number of Quebec inmates mistakenly freed

Ya… this is old news. You gotta admire the Toronto Sun for stale journalism. Personally I think it’s pay-back for the Habs having made it so far in the playoffs:

QUEBEC CITY – Quebec prisons mistakenly released a record number of inmates in 2009-2010, a situation that the government has yet to explain.

Thirty-seven prisoners were prematurely released during the government’s last fiscal year (April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010), according to documents recently released as part of a Ministry of Public Security study.

According to the documents, a copy of which was obtained by QMI Agency, detention centres in Rivieres-des-Prairies (eight prisoners), Quebec City (eight, including six men and two women), Hull (six prisoners) and Saint-Jerome (five prisoners) were the worst offenders when it came to releasing inmates early.

The documents also revealed that three of the 37 mistakenly released prisoners had not been re-captured as of March 31, and sent back to prison to serve the remainder of their sentences.

However, Minister Jacques Dupuis told QMI Agency that one of the “lucky”

inmates had since been arrested.

The prisoners spent, on average, three weeks on the run before being caught again. In one case, police in Sorel, Que., needed 75 days to find one prisoner.

Quebec’s prisons mistakenly released twice as many prisoners as it did in 2006-2007.

In 2005-2006, 25 prisoners were released too early, 27 were released in 2007-2008 and 25 were cut loose the following year.

An embarrassed Dupuis said last February that he would be asking for an internal investigation to shed light on a situation he called “outrageous.”

More than three months later, however, the minister’s office indicated he still hasn’t received the answers he is looking for.

“The investigation is almost complete,” said the minister’s spokesperson, Mario Vaillancourt. “A report including recommendations will be written and given to the minister.”

The spokesperson added that “as soon as we discover a case, a warning is immediately sent to police so that we can re-incarcerate these prisoners as quickly as possible. The information is also past along to the prisoner’s victims, if applicable.

The compiled data also showed that some of the worst-offending prisons were also the most overcrowded of the province’s 18 detention centres.

In 2009-2010, Saint-Jerome was at 114% capacity, followed by Rivieres-des-Prairies (109%), Hull (108%) and Quebec City (99%).

This site is about the unsolved murder of Theresa Allore who died November 3, 1978 in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. If you have any information please contact her brother John Allore, johnallore(at)gmail (dot)com